Bon Iver

Why are we still adding bands with multiple albums present already? You'd think the user list at least wouldn't be so fucking basic. Add a fuckin ICP album already, you milquetoast hipsters. 1/5.

I personally like this Bon Iver album the most. The songs are mature and have an original sound. The first album was folk and singer-songwriter stuff, this album is all about nature in epic soundscapes. Listening to it feels like sitting on a porch at a cabin at the edge of the forest looking to the clouds passing by. Almost too bad that Vernon started experimenting even further on the following albums.

The debut album has that energy of an outpouring following a decade's build-up which is hard to beat, though I think this is in some ways a more mature and consciously realized album. Regardless it's a very strong sophomore offering. Holocene is one of my absolute favorite songs of the decade.

The second bon iver album is amazing in many ways and in some even better than the original. Less melancholic and with a stronger sense of nostalgia and appealing to the senses this album is a great listen. Holocene is one of Bon Iver’s best songs. This is fantastic but not quite as good overall as the debut. 8.6/10

This is tepid in a way that makes you think that Justin wossisface has gone out of his way to make luke-warm music. You'd expect to hear this in a chain coffee house. If you heard it in a pub, you'd leave.

Typical Bon Iver sound. I love it

More Bon Iver… and it’s good Bon Iver. Dramatic, interesting, and lovely.

I'm rounding up a little bit on this because i really like Bon Iver's vibe, both the musical aesthetic and Justin's vocal delivery. I was completely blown away by For Emma, and this album unfortunately doesn't really live up to that precedent. Holocene, Towers, Calgary and Beth/Rest are the strongest for me, but the rest seem very much "vibe with no hook"... it seems a bit short of being an engaging song. Still enjoyed listening to it.

Most of it is pretty good, except for the yacht rock nonsense…

I love Bon Iver and even if it's all sort of samey in the end, it's a delightful and ethereal samey.

Another solid 40 minutes of bon iver music. Somewhat less sad than for Emma forever ago.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Perth, Michicant

better than 22, a million; not quite as good as For Emma, Forever Ago; a solid 3.5 stars!

My second favourite Bon Iver album, after for Emma, it gets a bit too pretentious after this.

Known best for his gentle melancholic approach to folsky indie, Bon Iver is someone who I've been aware of for a while but never felt motivated to fully listen to. Perhaps a spotlight is deserved given his prolific resume as of 2025: credits with Kanye West, James Blake, Travis Scott, and most notable Taylor Swift. Obviously he has the attention of everyone else, so let's see what the big deal is. What a tender collection of songs. There's a certain stillness to much of this album that makes Justin Vernon's vocals feel like occasional breezes through the sustained instruments. Within sonic soundscapes of hazy memories represented through pastoral imagery (the album art), Bon Iver finds beauty in a lot of complicated feelings. The closing track finds a nice balance between the soothing padded synths of the '80s and the classic slide guitar of yesteryear country in order to get across his longing most effectively. Wonderful compositions all-around. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: No doubt in my mind it should be there.

Trés bon

I totally thought Bon Iver was a dude, not an band, until just now. 😂 I only knew Bon from the Taylor Swift collab, exile on folklore. The music breaks rules in a good way. The instruments feel loosely in sync at times. The lead line breaks the expected pattern some, like the descending guitar part at the 5th beat of Holocene. It doesn’t appear again until about 23 seconds. Mr. Iver keeps me listening on my feet, which keeps me engaged, which keeps me interested.

Justin Vernon can be counted on to sink the listener deep into a mood with his work in Bon Iver. The way he was able to do that single-handedly on his debut, "For Emma, Forever Ago," was remarkable and impactful, and here on "Bon Iver" he follows it up expertly with some help. Nothing Vernon does will probably ever match up to "Skinny Love" and the explosion of popularity he built to off of that first release, but this self-titled follow-up does a pretty good job of attempting it.

It only dawned on me as this album appeared, that Bon Iver had not been included on the original list. One of the most influential indie bands of the 2000’s? What a weird and wrong decision that is. “Perth” is one of my favorite album openers of the last 20 years and while Bon Iver don’t keep that level of intensity throughout, this is an obvious miss from the editors. Thank you, person who submitted this.

Good call that the list needed some Bon Iver, and although the debut album would probably be the more popular pick, it's still obvious on the eponymous sophomore record how much of an impact Bon Iver has had on the indie scene the past 18 years. At this point, the sound on Bon Iver is much too played out and appropriated by countless acts, so some of the charm has faded a bit. I've also always never been really hooked by the album - it's immensely beautiful, yes, but maybe also a tad boring?

I have a love/hate relationship with Bon Iver. Some of his music I think is beautiful, while some is pretentious and unlistenable. This I found to be more of the former. 3 stars.

Beth/Rest sounds like it was ripped from 80s smooth ballads

Falsetto folk isn’t my thing and maybe it deserved one entry into the overall list but I don’t think we needed six or whatever

Post-rock, chamber folk, chamber pop, experimental. Ni fu ni fa.

Very mellow, but not boring in a way that drags down what I'm doing when using it for background music

I've listened to a few Bon Iver LPs by now, but this one surprised me – I wasn't expecting how varied and lively the instrumentation would be, and really enjoyed the richness of the production. This is still a singer-songwriter LP at the end of the day and felt a bit slow to me in parts, but the album still punched well above its weight for a genre I'm not typically a fan of.

Bon Iver

Real nice

This was nice. Earthy and melancholy. A bit slow moving for my mood today, but well done. Fave Songs: Holocene, Towers, Perth, Wash., Michicant

A third Bon Iver album? Gotta agree with the top comment. We don't need another one and should have an ICP album. I don't enjoy that band very much but they are important musically. Like the previous Bon Iver album I got it is fine. Indie bullshit I should like but doesn't connect with me. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

It was ok, nothing special.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver is startlingly dull, maybe I can see why people would find it chill but most of the time this isn't something I'd want to listen to. It's okay background music, it's LOADS better than the other effort of theirs we had on the main list (22, A Million, which was horseshit) and apparently the user submissions list contains more. Fair enough, if bland is your thing, but it's just a low 2/5 to me because it's a whole lot of sleepy nothingness.